I'm sure we have all heard the story to some extent, but this is the most complete coverage I have read about Bill Mantlo in quite some time.
http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2011/11/07/tragic-tale#.Tr9O0iIAZ7Y.facebook
The first two screens/pages cover his present status while making a glowing report on Bill's life before the accident, although I'm not too crazy about some of Jim Shooter's comments on page 3.
But from the reaccount of the accident on page 4, (and at the time this was written, the authorities still haven't caught the <censored!> who hit Mantlo and left the scene!) to the end, it was all I could do to keep from crying, and I'll be 50 in March!
At page 5, it starts covering the battles the Mantlo family have had with CIGNA Insurance, and towards the end, the article starts going over the current state of the Health Care Industry in general, especially its lobby efforts and all the flak over health care reform.
It is a sad statement about Humanity when profits have become more important than people.
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On a personal note, the closest I have come to meeting Bill Mantlo was when he sent me a No Prize over the results of Contest of Champions #3.
But I loved everything I read that he wrote, especially the Micronauts and Rom: Spaceknight.
What he has been through is something NO Human being should have to experience.
This looks like a great article, Lee. I look forward to reading it. Thanks for linking. I'm something of a recentish convert to Mantlo's work - some of it is simply outstanding - and I was very interested in how exactly he is faring these days. I just skimmed the article and Shooter's rather odd comments jumped out at me, too.
The article was interesting reading, but I would take exception to the way it described Mantlo's not wearing a helmet when he was injured. From the description of how hard he was hit, the helmet would have done little to mitigate the harm.
I'm not a doctor Clark, so I can't say for sure. There might not have been a major difference, but logic does indicate that it's better to have a helmet on than off.
I'm not a doctor, either, but I have several relatives who are. One insists that some helmets, owing to how they are constructed and how well they absorb and/or deflect blows -- or not -- may make matters worse rather than better.
Granted, one can't predict what kind of injury one is going to have when wearing the helmet, so one can't predict if the helmet would make it better or worse. But, again, Bill Mantlo was hit by the car, the left side of his head hit the windshield of said car, and the right side of his head hit the pavement. I submit with a hit like that, any helmet wouldn't have helped enough to matter.
A little uplifting toward the end of the article (but not much). Chris Claremont said it best: "What a f*cking waste."
According to a news item in today's Comics in the AM by "Robot 6" at Comic Book Resources, Greg Pak has now started taking donations on Mantlo's behalf to give to Bill's brother Mike to cover costs.
Wow, I just read that whole story. That is one of the most saddening--and yet familiar--stories I've read or heard about in recent years. That kind of thing seems to creep into your life more and more as you get older, doesn't it?